The body of a drug dealer has been found in a bog where police are searching for the body of one of the Disappeared.

Gerry Daly (43), originally from Tallaght, Dublin, disappeared from his home in Bailieborough in Co Cavan on June 26, 2011 after last being seen by his partner.

It is believed he was beaten to death, but the results of the post mortem at Our Lady's Hospital in Navan are not being released for operational reasons.

Daly's next-door neighbour and criminal associate, former Garda detective John Kerins (49), was shot dead in his home in November 2012.

Daly's remains were found by a farmer on the Oristown Bog near Kells on Thursday. The farmer contacted gardai, who are trying to locate IRA victim Brendan Megraw, who disappeared in 1978.

Father-to-be Megraw was abducted by the IRA from his west Belfast home in 1978 before he was murdered and secretly buried at the remote bog in Oristown.

Unsuccessful searches for the 22-year-old Twinbrook man's remains were called off in 2011.

But fresh information sparked a new survey last month at an area of the bog which was not previously examined. Both Daly and Kerins were involved with a Dublin crime gang, and it was a dispute over drugs and money that led to both men being killed, gardai believe.

While Kerins was once questioned in relation to Daly's disappearance and suspected murder, he was never arrested.

However, a criminal from Blanchardstown, Dublin, who remains the chief suspect in Daly's killing, has been arrested and questioned in the past.

Gardai are now assessing if they will re-arrest the man and hope that forensic evidence linking him with Daly's murder could be found on the body.

The chief suspect, a Traveller, has served time for involvement in cannabis growhouses – gardai searching his property found a large-scale cultivating operation.

The suspect has strong links to John Paul Joyce, the 30-year-old drug dealer from Grove Lane in Coolock who was found shot dead at Dunbro Lane near Dublin Airport on January 9, 2010.